


The Missiles mean I Love You

by JarvisUandDUMEtoo



Series: Short Rhodey Stories [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Affection, Anniversary, Humor, M/M, Presents, Short, Weapons, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 10:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17465723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JarvisUandDUMEtoo/pseuds/JarvisUandDUMEtoo
Summary: Some people buy their significant other jewelry. For their ten year anniversary Tony made him the crown jewel of the freedom missile line, and the promise that 'the bad guys wouldn't even come out of their caves.'





	The Missiles mean I Love You

Tony had never once told him, “I love you.” He'd been mad at first, before it occurred to him that Tony honestly didn't know how. Maybe it was the way he was raised, some combination of empty mansions and packed boarding schools. Whatever it was, it left him staring back, eyes full of love, but his lips only letting out a choked, “I know,” or more infuriatingly, an “of course you do, who doesn't?” In return to Rhodey pouring out his feelings. And it made him want to cry, because Tony was Tony, and he wouldn't want him any other way, but when you're only nineteen and just realized you're in love with your best friend it's a little underwhelming. 

Later, he came to be thankful for it, because DADT was in place and hell if he was going to stay out of the Air Force because in their eyes Tony had the wrong parts. So really, it was for the best that the word never came up in public. 

It wasn't until Tony stopped saying ‘I love you’, that Rhodey realized that in his own backwards, emotionally constipated way, Tony had been shouting it from the rooftops for the past ten years. 

“I designed new body armor for you Honey Bear, lets see a bullet get through this! You'll be safer with this on in a war zone than I'll be back home, no don't laugh, you won't be laughing when I die in a mugging gone wrong while you're safe and sound in the middle of a firefight...” 

“It can detect IEDs from a hundred feet away, yes I know it's big, just strap it to the humvee, and it'll tell you about anything long before you get there. Unless you're traveling sixty hundred miles an hour. Then you're screwed. Stay in the speed limit, that’s what you always tell me.” 

“It masks heats signatures, you'll be like a ninja but better, because you're you. Air Force Rhodey ninja. Promise me if you're going to be an evil ninja that you'll give me a heads up, if I'm going out it's going to be during a sick sword fight while I yell at you to remember who you truly are. Should I build you a katana next? Too late, I’m making you a sword. Two swords. A lightsaber?” 

“Forget MREs, this is a hundred times better, it's like real food Rhodey, I based the noodles off that Thai place you like downtown, the one with all the goldfish, no the other one, maybe I'm thinking of the Chinese place, there were goldfish. You know what? Forget the goldfish. Make a list, forget MREs, goldfish, and our sophomore year of college, while you’re at it.” 

“This gun will never jam. I dare you to put sand in it, right now, just so you can see. No, I don't have any sand on me right now either. Crazy how that happens. Let's go raid some kid’s sandbox.” 

And finally, the weapons. Fighter jets, and drones, and bombs and guns and missiles. Big, faster, stronger, smarter, more powerful weapons. Creations of destruction, death brought to life by clever hands and an anxious mind. 

Some people buy their significant other jewelry. For their ten year anniversary Tony made him the crown jewel of the freedom missile line, and the promise that the bad guys wouldn't even come out of their caves. That Rhodey could just stand back, far away, and be safe. Turned out that Tony was the one who wasn't safe. 

Three months later Tony was back, but not really, because whoever this person was, it wasn't his Tony. This guy was quiet, this guy was sharp edges and hard angles, this guy flinched away from him and stared at him with unreadable eyes set in a heartbreakingly familiar face. And this guy shut down the weapons production of Stark Industries. That was when Rhodey looked back over a decade of military grade weapons production, and saw it as the long meandering love letter it was. Hundreds of incarnations of ‘I support you, I love you, win this war and come home’. 

Then Tony stopped everything. 

And Tony was back but wasn't back and somehow they weren't talking and Tony didn't want to make anything else for him ever again. So it was a real relief when Tony met him as he was giving the new recruits the beginning of their pilot training, and pulled him aside to say that he was working on something new. Rhodey laughed. After weeks of being stalled out, Tony was back to building instead of hiding, this was good, this was really good. “You had some people worried with that little stunt at the press conference, you know.” 

Some people being him, but they were in public so he had to speak between the lines. Tony grimaced. “This….. isn't for the military.” Rhodey was confused. what exactly did that mean in the context of their little metaphor? Wasn’t he synonymous with the military here? 

“Look, I'm working on something big, something different. I need you to-” 

No, no, no. Rhodey interrupted him coldly. “What you need, is time to get your mind right. Nice seeing you Tony.” He turned and left because this was wrong, this was all wrong, he had found Tony and brought him home and everything was supposed to be alright again. Tony wasn't supposed to want something different. Tony couldn't want something different, because Rhodey didn't have anything different to offer, so what did that even mean? 

Did that mean they were over? 

He couldn't imagine breaking up with Tony, but he also couldn't imagine Tony killing 56 confirmed hostiles, and the bodies in the camp didn't lie. He also couldn't imagine him flying a suit of armor with more artillery than a tank, but that happened too, just a day later. 

When he finally made it down to the workshop, he got to watch Tony suit up as a second silver suit stared at him from the corner. One a few inches taller than would comfortably fit Tony. So this was what different meant. A shield instead of a sword, purpose instead of play, clarity where there was clutter, silence where there was noise, and running beneath it all a constant note: I love you. 

So sure, Rhodey never got hear ‘I love you’, but between WarMachine upgrades and repairs and stolen kisses and moonlit flights, he never once doubted that he was loved, and was more than happy to say it enough for the both of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!!


End file.
